Do you give your customers pain relief or a thrilling performance?

You have joint pain or a headache. You have a list of things to do but the discomfort is distracting. You ingest the recommended levels (or slightly above) of tylenol/paracetamol or aspirin, and as the fog lifts you move down your check list of activities.

But do you rush to discover what other fine products and services are offered by the company that has relieved you of this burden? Probably not. If you do reflect on your pain relief, you’re probably grateful of its discovery, but thankful too that this malady doesn’t strike too often, as the toxic pressure on your liver is considerable.

You have just purchased your new Harley-Davidson or your new Sage fly-fishing rod. Or you have just completed your belly-dancing workshop with Rachel Brice, or attended your first Ring Cycle at Bayreuth.

Do you rush to discover what other fine products and services are offered by the company that has thrilled you with this experience? Apparently we do, and we do so with our wallets wide open.

Both extremes will attain distinctive positioning in the minds of the consumer, but only the ‘thrilling performance’ has the potential to lead to a more expansive, healthier and self-sustaining future.

Let’s be clear. Pain relief is important. It can save businesses. By improving working capital management, new transactional software can give organisations time to readjust their marketing strategy, or invest more heavily to bring forward product launches. Providers of effective pain relief products can make significant profits if they target the right customer segment. Such a segment would have an immediate need that can be only be satisfied by products in scarce supply. At this stage, you have buyers with limited appetite to engage in a debate on value vs cost pricing.

However, if your offer treats the symptoms but doesn’t remedy the underlying ailment, a relationship based on dependency will emerge. Dependency builds resentment and buyers will seek any opportunity, even vengefully, to terminate the relationship.

In contrast, users who are thrilled by your offer feel “empowered” and “liberated”. They feel “ennobled” and “important,” “creative” and “energised.” And lest you feel these quotes come from some fancy heavily branded consumer goods market research, they are words supplied by front lines users in the construction, mineral and agricultural industry sector in response to some remarkable product experience.

Recipients of thrilling performance want the relationship to continue. They, not you, seek the opportunities to extend and broaden contact. They tell others. People want to hear about thrill points, but even the willingness of the most attentive listeners soon wanes of hearing about your ills.